Pages

Friday, October 1, 2010

Do you know you can bake with lavender?

I know. *hanging head* It's been 2 weeks since I posted something (and I try so hard to post once a week!) My excuse: preparing an opera role and training for a marathon. Am I forgiven?

Last week, in between singing at church and singing at opera rehearsal, I bought some lavender from the farmers market by the Natural History Museum.

My mission was to emulate a brownie I loved when I worked at Cafe Lalo.

The brownies were easy enough to make. I used the Supernatural Brownie recipe and added about 2 more tablespoons of flour to make the brownies a little less fudge like.

I wanted to make some sort of white chocolate ganache/glaze to put over the brownies, so I started with white chocolate chips.

Then I poured the heavy cream that I had just heated to boiling point over the chocolate.

I whisked until combined and let cool. THEN (drum roll please), I added the lavender.

That's right. I wanted to make a white chocolate lavender topping to put on the brownies.

My topping turned out a little thinner than I expected, so I set it in the fridge overnight which seemed to do the trick.

White Chocolate Lavender Ganache/Glaze

Ingredients needed:

8 oz White chocolate

1 Cup Heavy Cream

1 teaspoon baking lavender

Put 8oz of white chocolate in a large bowl. Bring the heavy cream to boiling and remove from heat. Pour over white chocolate. For a heavier topping, add more white chocolate. Whisk until fully combined and smooth. Let cool. Add lavender. (Add more than a teaspoon for a stronger taste.) Once cooled completely, feel free to put in fridge to make it a little firmer.

Erika's Extra: If you don't want to chomp on the grainy texture of the lavendar, feel free to blend in a food processor with 1/4 cup of sugar and then add that to the mixture.

9 comments:

I love lavender, but I've been so afraid to cook with it after a horrible experience! A friend made a lemon lavender cake, and honestly, it tasted like soap! I'm too afraid now to try to cook with it for fear that I'll serve my guests soap cake!

This recipe looks great! I really want to try it. I was wondering why you choose not to infuse the cream with the lavender before you make the ganache? Would it be too weak? Sorry if this is a dumb question >.<

Ive enjoyed reading your posts and I really like your recipes here.if you wont mind, I'd love to guide Foodista readers to this post. Just add the lavender widget at the end of this post and it's good to go. Thanks!

About Me

Originally from Texas, I've lived in NYC since 2005 and have been "making it work" in my small kitchen since 2008. My life in NYC consists of juggling a full time job, singing in small opera companies, running races, and baking desserts.
All in all:
I like cookies, therefore I am.